No easy bailout plan for troubled Ukraine economy

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine needs money, and fast — in weeks, not months. But bailing out the country of 46 million people will not be as easy as simply writing a big check.

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Posted Feb. 26, 2014 at 2:00 AM

Posted Feb. 26, 2014 at 2:00 AM

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KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine needs money, and fast — in weeks, not months. But bailing out the country of 46 million people will not be as easy as simply writing a big check.

For one, Ukraine has already burned the main global financial rescuer, the International Monetary Fund, by failing to keep to the terms of earlier bailouts from 2008 and 2010. Now it needs help again, and its economic and financial problems are worse than before.

The currency is sliding, raising concerns that companies that owe money in foreign currency could go bust. Banks are fragile. A rescue with outside lenders can't be agreed upon until there's a government. And Russia could make things worse by demanding payment of money owed for natural gas supplies.

Even with a bailout, the country would face testing times. It would likely be asked to make painful reforms — including a potential doubling in the price of gas — that would hurt standards of living as the economy recovers.